3 injured when car crashes into Manhattan outdoor dining area
UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Three people were treated for minor injuries after a car crashed into an outdoor dining area on the Upper East Side Monday night.
It happened just after 9:30 p.m. outside the Delizia restaurant on the southeast corner of 92nd Street and Second Avenue.
A Cadillac Escalade was involved in a crash with an Audi sedan, and police say one of the cars plowed into the wooden outdoor dining setup and decimated the wooden barrier.
The canopy was left mangled, and at least two people were treated for minor injuries.
The driver of the Audi was also hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, while the driver of the Escalade was not hurt.
Witnesses Noel Galvin and Richard Roman said it all happened in a split second.
"It was empty because the pizza shop was closed, so that, luckily no one got (seriously) hurt," Roman said.
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The cleanup and rebuild began Tuesday. Guissepe Pecora owns the Upper East Side staple.
"I'm going to take precautions," he said. "I'm going to most likely put a car there, so this way I protect my diners."
He said that with business already suffering due to the closure of indoor dining, safety concerns like this are more reasons restaurants cannot rely on outdoor dining alone to survive.
"This is an opportunity for leadership to step up and come up with a solution to the problem," Pecora said.
And while crashes like this are rare, with outdoor dining now ubiquitous, they are increasing.
One group that tracks these kinds of crashes has counted at least 20 nationwide this year, compared to just four last year.
The investigation into the most recent incident is active and ongoing, but it is not the first time an outdoor dining setup in the city has become involved in a traffic mishap.
In Brooklyn, jarring surveillance video showed an out-of-control vehicle plowing into an outdoor dining area on July 21.
Security footage showed a pickup truck crashing into L'Wren's curbside dining area around dusk.
ALSO READ | Van slams into Upper East Side cafe in yet another outdoor dining crash
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